Fortnite's short-lived jetpacks and shotguns mode is back

The high-flying limited time mode will hopefully stick around a little longer this time.

We included Fortnite's Close Encounters LTM in our list of the best and worst of Fortnite's limited time modes, but I'm not completely certain about which side it was meant for. "Players would fly through their air, shotguns in hand and jetpacks on backs, taking players out in the skies," which sounds like a blast—except that once people figured out how to literally place themselves above the fray, it all fell apart. Epic pulled the plug, and that was that. Until today.

MrPopoTFS, also known as Epic community coordinator Sean Hamilton, explained on Reddit what the developers have done to address the "sky base" problem—"Sky bases" being the extremely high towers players could build that put them beyond the reach of jetpacks and short-range shotguns, the only weapons that were available in the mode.

"We've also added the Grappler to this LTM and decreased the burn rate of jet fuel by 50%," he wrote. "The extra jet fuel and grappler should help deal with those bases high in the sky."

The Close Encounters LTM is live now. Epic hasn't said when it will wrap up, but hopefully it will run at least a little longer than last time.